Paresh Barua is shaky

‘What is jarring about Ulfa is its senseless killing spree’

By Patricia Mukhim

Ulfa commander-in-chief Paresh Barua’s open threat to intellectuals and others he terms “agents” of the Indian state reflects the desperation of a man who is unsure of himself and deeply unsettled by the prevailing conditions. Arabinda Rajkhowa’s surrender/arrest has left the avant-garde of Assamese pride feeling lonely and confused about the next steps in the movement.

Which way would Ulfa go now is the question many would like to hear an answer to. Thirty years of bloodspill with nothing to show for results is unacceptable to larger Assamese society which has borne the brunt of the movement. Terror as a means to an end has limited appeal. This has been proven time and again in rebellions across the universe. There is a limit beyond which rhetoric ceases to win hearts. What is jarring about Ulfa is its senseless killing spree, particularly the one at Dhemaji.

This writer has mentioned the incident on several occasions because it bears repetition. Not that other killings are less heinous but blowing up innocent children at the threshold of life and then saying at this stage that the top guns of the Ulfa had no knowledge of the outrageous crime is sheer falsehood and deserves the severest condemnation.

Why heroes?

The idea that human life is dispensable for the sake of some larger cause is the argument of oppressive dictators. If the basic aim of terrorism is to create an aura of fear and despair in the minds of the common people, then Ulfa has succeeded in doing so for a long time. Fear makes people subservient to the wiles of the terrorists who then go about doing what they condemn in the state. Extortion, kidnap for ransom and killings of those whose families fail to cough up enough money are tactics employed by Ulfa in these three troubled decades.

Once the common man has been subdued by acts of terror, it becomes easy for Ulfa to take control of their lives.

It took a long while for society to start speaking up. Initially there was perhaps a distant hope nurtured by the gentry that “the boys” would actually deliver them from the tyranny of the State, if the State indeed was tyrannical. But what a misplaced faith that was!

Every revolution begins with noble ideals but soon degenerates into an egotistic pursuit of the goals of the revolutionaries without taking into account what is good for the people. Did the people of Assam opt for ruthlessness of the kind where labourers are lined up and shot dead? Did they authorise the blasting of bombs and grenades where human flesh is strewn across the roads and blood litters the pathways?

Those who have lost their dear ones cannot even think of a decent burial because mangled flesh cannot be recognised and collected. Indeed it would be an injustice to those who have died over the years if society now decides to honour the returned rebels and treat them like heroes.

No, the horror unleashed by Ulfa is a calculated attempt by the outfit to blackmail the State through body counts. The State, unfortunately, has used the best kid gloves to deal with this cruel outfit. Sadly, in all of these years civil society has not been able to garner sufficient intellectual resources and the social capital needed to tackle groups like Ulfa which to all intents and purposes have become anti-people.

The state of Assam could have progressed faster in a climate of peace. While it is true that growth in a liberalised economy can never be evenly distributed and there will always be some who will be richer than others, there is enough social capital to call attention to this unequal growth which in turn will stop the powers that be from riding roughshod over sound public opinion.

In a democracy, constant engagement is the only way out. Ultimatums and deadlines are the tools of the bully. To my mind all terrorist groups of which Ulfa is one, are major bullies whose motto is: “It’s my way or the highway”.

Delhi role

It will be interesting to watch how the Centre that has by default become the main player in this game reacts to Paresh Barua’s overtones. The Centre has nothing to lose by playing politics with the current situation. After all, the Assembly elections are knocking at Assam’s door. Armed militia will play power games on such occasions. They will support one group against the other after making secret deals with individual contenders.

The Congress has its own batch of Ulfa sympathisers who will try and work out deals with the outfit in lieu of votes. If we think elections in this country are fair we are either naïve or overly optimistic. If the Assembly elections will lead to some of the worst bloodspills in Bodoland, the Karbi and the Dimasa outfits or their fringe elements will create absolute terror to ensure that people conform and the votes are cast for the candidates supported by the outfits. Or, the people would be too fearful to even come out and cast their votes. So there will be a free-for-all in the booths. These are possibilities one cannot ignore.

The State currently represented by the ruling Congress both at the Centre and the state will use all its resources, including the police force, to help it win the elections. Union home minister P. Chidambaram, with all his acumen, will not be able to take any hard action against any of the armed groups if such action makes the state Congress unpopular. So the Union home minister will virtually be treading on eggshells. He will occasionally give some tongue-lashing when too much blood spills in Guwahati, Kokrajhar, North Cachar Hills or Karbi Anglong.

The home minister will just be doing his customary duty, none of which will cut any ice. It is pointless to look at the state as some sort of saviour. If elections have proved one thing it is that the elected forget their voters once counting is over. They remember them erratically when money comes in for schemes and those have to be implemented. Otherwise, politicians today represent only themselves and the business elite whose interests they actively promote.

Social resource

In the end, civil society must garner its own resources to tackle both the state-sponsored violence and the more virulent type unleashed by militants. The common man, who is at the receiving end of both forces, is often left licking his own wounds. While Rajkhowa’s surrender and those of his colleagues have raised expectations that peace would descend over the chaos of decades, we might be speaking too soon.

Paresh Barua may or may not have the wherewithal to inflict another bout of violence and frankly speaking, if the state wishes to, it can curtail violence to a great extent

The question is whether the state is serious about peace. There are so many layers of cobwebs in this whole murky business that we cannot be sure who is acting at whose behest and to what ends. Militancy has the propensity to blur things and confuse the most quick-thinking among us.

Military intelligence is something we will never be able to unravel. And police intelligence is more of a sham. So really, at the end of the day the best we can do for ourselves is to come together and do what citizens in a democracy are expected to do. We are expected to expand the space for civil society to speak out louder so that those voices are not drowned by the cacophonous speeches of the militia and the State.

We the people are more important than both. We have the responsibility to build the human resources needed to assert our rightful claims to a peaceful world. This is not a simplistic proposal. It requires much thinking, planning and several action plans but Assam has the intellectual resources to rise to the occasion and the social capital to mobilise the citizenry.

(The writer can be contacted at patricia17@rediffmail.com)